[Research progress and prospect of gastric cancer surgery in 2021]

The incidence and mortality rates of gastric cancer are among the top three cancers in China, which poses great threat to people's lives and health. So far, surgery remains to be the cornerstone of treatment for gastric cancer. With the development of laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive treatment techniques, together with the deepening of clinical researches, as we review the research progress in 2021, the core controversial issues of gastric cancer surgery have been basically addressed. The series of "minimal-innovation" concepts and technologies represented by single-incision/reduced-port laparoscopic surgeries have been further developed; radiomics and artificial intelligence aided prediction have been applied into the forefront of surgical accurate decision-making; targeted and immune-therapy is about to break through the bottleneck of surgical efficacy of gastric cancer. Currently, molecular imaging and targeted tracer guided precision cancer surgery are being explored, which is expected to revolutionize in key links such as real-time in-vivo determination of tumor margin, tracing of metastatic lymph nodes and visualization of nerves. Looking forward into the future, gastric cancer surgery will break through the century-old ceiling of "gross appearance by naked eye" and "traditional extensive experience", and set off a new round of technological revolutions in molecular visualization intelligent precision minimally invasive surgery.